Say Hello, Say Goodbye
by morrisins
Summary: Roderich knows he has to move on. But it's hard when he remembers all the time they spent together. AusAus, Human AU.
1. One Left

One Left

I remember his face, just before it happened.

Didn't I tell him to be careful, over and over? Didn't I do my best to stop him from being reckless? But every time, Kyle just waved it off. He thought he was the exception.

That's the problem with humans. We think we're invincible. "Nothing bad will happen to _me_!" We laugh, as we take risks and face danger. Seeing people who _have_ come off worse, we feel pity, of course, but the idea of something similar happening to us doesn't cross our minds. Nobody sitting there, dabbing their eyes, is aware that it could just as well have been them.

Of course, that information is completely inaccurate. It only applies to some people, I would say about eighty-five percent of - what - under thirties? And probably some older people as well. I don't know, I would have to look it up.

It certainly did apply to Kyle.


	2. Two Friends

Two Friends

I first met Kyle when we were twelve: he had moved all the way from Australia when his mother was given a job here.

(Now he'll never go back, will he?)

Of course, that spawned a lot of teasing. What would you expect from twelve-year-olds? A few "No kangaroos in Austria!"s were inevitable around the new boy. But it was good-natured, friendly. Kyle had been an instant hit with the "popular kids" in the class. Personally, I thought he was rather overrated, always wearing that stupid band-aid over his nose. He said it was from a snake bite. Nobody believed him, obviously.

...

I hurried down the corridor, my cheap backpack bouncing on my shoulders, overstuffed with heavy books. If I could only be a bit faster, I might make it to the piano room before the caretaker locked the door. But it was hard to run with so much weight to carry. Gilbert would have laughed at me and called me a nerd for carrying all this school stuff, but then Gilbert called me a lot of things. He called me a pussy because I played the piano, but I knew from a reliable source that he played the flute, which made _him_ the pussy in my opinion.

The ... reliable source?

Elizabeta Héderváry. She was, however, also the one who told Gilbert about me playing the piano, and the only reason the whole class didn't know about it was because I threatened them both with death by Natalia, who I had... agreements... with. The problem with Elizabeta was that she was a sort of double agent, telling me about Gilbert, and Gilbert about me. She was his girlfriend, too.

As I approached the piano room, gasping for breath, my foot connected painfully with a hard lump under the scratchy carpet, flinging me forward into empty space. Air rushed past my face, a split second of dread, and before I knew it, I was sprawled on the floor, my glasses askew and a dull throb in my nose. My head ached.

I lay there for a few seconds, catching the breath that had been completely, painfully knocked out of me, and processing the shock of what had just happened. Then, knowing I had to get my piano practice in before I went home, I picked myself up, dusting my dark blue coat off. I had to ignore the pain - it wasn't too bad anyway. Embarrassed although there was nobody there, I strode forwards with a light blush on my face.

Pushing the glass door open, the small room faced me. The shiny, maple wood upright piano greeted me like an old friend, and I could almost feel the gleaming black-and-white keys whispering as my fingers itched to stroke them. I approached it, blowing on my fingertips to make sure I wouldn't dirty the creamy ivory. Starting with an A minor chord, I progressed to C major scales, two octaves in each hand, then both hands together. It was my hello to the instrument, just the same every time. Most people called it a warm-up. I preferred to be more intimate. You say hello to whatever you're doing, and then afterwards, you have to say goodbye, at least until the next time. I hated goodbyes.

I still do.


	3. Three Chords

Three Chords

The piano responded smoothly to my touch, beautiful, lyrical notes flowing from my fingers. I knew I was in my element, that this was how it was supposed to be. Finishing my scales, I paused in the suspended silence, readying myself. Then, I started.

Two lone notes broke the silence, and then deepened into an eerie tune. Keeping the heavy minor chords steadily in the left hand under the slow, chilling melody in the right, I played on, losing myself in the music, until I couldn't tell what was the piano and what was my hands.

It was a prelude by Chopin, Op. 28, No. 4, in E minor. I hadn't needed the sheet music in weeks, and it was, in fact, practically perfect by now. I only still played it because I loved it, and I didn't want to move on from it onto another piece. As I said, I hate goodbyes.

The layers of notes washed round me. I was diving deep into the melody, to the point of no return. Nobody could bring me back now except the end of the music.

And that person standing by the door, watching me, and failing miserably to be discreet. It was rather distracting, actually. But I decided to put on a show for them, reimmersing myself into the flow.

As the piece finished with three long, heavy chords, I took a mock bow.

"Well? You like it? I know there's somebody there."

I thought I heard a small intake of breath, but no-one showed up. A thought suddenly occurred to me: what if there wasn't anyone there? I would feel like an awful fool, talking to thin air. But then I realised, it was obvious.

"Gilbert?" I called sharply. "This isn't -"

A head poked around the door, followed quickly by a tall body. It was the new boy - what was his name - with the band-aid - Kyle. I was genuinely surprised, having expected Gilbert to be there, cackling at me, most likely with a camera of some sort ready for blackmail material.

"Hey, mate!" He grinned at me, apparently not in the least bit bothered that he had just _interrupted_ my _piano practice._ However, his confident smile quickly faltered when he realised that I was glaring at him. That made me feel rather proud: I was in control of the situation.

"Uh - I think ya dropped this, " Kyle explained, becoming more and more awkward, "by the library."

He held up a page from a Science textbook, with a sort of sheepish half-grin, and waved it in my general direction. Pulling the paper from his strong grip so sharply that it nearly tore, I examined it, feeling rather annoyed. It looked a bit blurry, but was otherwise intact. Satisfied, I opened my folder and slipped it inside, returning my gaze to Kyle just in case it was possible to bore any further through him with only my eyes.

Both of us could feel the tension building awkwardly inside the awfully small room. Eventually, Kyle spoke up.

"Oh, and your glasses are, um, kinda broken, " he gestured towards his right eye, "just saying." With that, the intruder nervously backed towards the door, slamming it shut in haste. I could hear his footsteps quickly retreating through the supposedly soundproof walls.

Feeling my glasses, I noticed that they were, in fact, broken - probably why I had seen the page blurry. In... the left side. The idiot.

Rude, too.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

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Hey! Today was my first day of school (IN AUSTRIA). It was good. There was - so there was a guy called Gilbert who was really cool and his friends Alfred and Mathias were too! We're gonna be friends! There were some other people too called Francis and Antonio (who's Spanish) and a crazy lady called Elizabeta. She was crazy.

There was this - this other guy Gilbert told me about called Roderich who Gilbert doesn't really like and I kinda agree. He sucks. I met him after school. He was playing the piano, and crikey, he was rude! He just kinda stared at me, like "Uh, mate, gtfo!" And I was just trying to help! He was really into - really into that piano, though. Like, "dooo dooo dooo, iloveyoumypiano, dooo dooo dooo, whewhenarewegettingmarried, dooo dooo dooo..." I have literally never seen anyone more into an inanimate object, hehe. Except maybe Emil back home who I told you guys about. Crikey, that guy liked his fridge.

Anyway, that's about all I have for y'all ( I mean, who wants to hear about the actual school)! Like and subscribe, all that caboodle, and make sure you tune in next time to find out what happened to the AWESOME PEOPLE, the SPANISH GUY, the LITERAL NUTJOB LIZ, and RODERICH THE PIANO MAN!

Ba-bye!


End file.
